The Eggman Rebellion
by XEspmasterX
Summary: Sonic, Amy, and Tails were living boring celebrity lives in Enchantment City until the Master Emerald was stolen from the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Now, they team up with Knuckles, along with a few old friends, and launch on a wild goose chase to find the thief, while meanwhile Doctor Robotnik has hatched his most diabolical plan yet.
1. Boring Celebrity Life Zone, Act 1

**Boring Celebrity Life Zone, Act 1**

After the exciting adventures of his youth, Sonic led a celebrity life, but a very boring one. He never cared for showing up to all his interviews and conferences, never liked being dogged by endless amounts of fans. Maybe it was selfish of him, but sometimes he wished Doctor Robotnik would come back and blow up a bunch of stuff with some new horrible monster of legend by his side, just so he would have something to do. Despite Amy's persistence that all of their donations and promotions and such were helping wounded war veterans, abused animals and starving AIDS orphans in Africa, it just wasn't as satisfying as blowing through armies of G.U.N. robots while still finishing his breakfast.

Because yes, he had money, but he usually just let Amy use it for her charity work because he didn't really have much else to do with it. Sonic never dreamed of being rich and famous; such a life was just painfully boring to him. He liked being on the move, but his place in society didn't allow that.

He lived with Amy in Enchantment City, a small, quiet town in Texas where they lived because it was near enough to Houston so that they could get there quickly but well outside of all the hustle and bustle. In his piddling amounts of spare time, he mainly hung out with Tails and listen to him blather on about his new obsession: classic rock bands. Tails seemed to never get tired of talking about the Beatles or Led Zepellin or The Rolling Stones or Rush or Yes or Pink Floyd or the Who or whoever. One day, while Tails was over at Sonic's while and Amy was out grocery shopping, Tails started talking about his newest favorite artist.

"Hey Sonic, have you ever heard of Queen?"

Sonic looked away from the sitcom he was watching and gave Tails a confused look. "Queen Who?"

Tails toppled backwards out of his chair, which fell over, and looked at Sonic from across the living room with a look that suggested that Sonic had just ran over from his place on the couch and punched Tails in the face. "QUEEN WHO? You're just kidding, right?"

Sonic hissed in annoying and took his feet off of the small, brown table in front of him to stamp them onto the floor. He hated being treated like he was missing out on one of the most obvious facts of life. "Tails, if I don't know who someone is, then I don't know who they are. I don't see what's so wrong about that. I bet there are plenty of things that you don't know."

"But Sonic, this is _Queen_ we're talking about!" Tails argued, as he put the chair upright again and straightened the rug it had fallen on. "_Everyone_ knows them! Don't tell me you've never heard Bohemian Rhapsody? Or We Are the Champions? Or Another One Bites the Dust?"

Sonic was about to say that he vaguely remembered hearing something like that on the radio once, but he was rescued from the tiresome conversation by Amy, who had returned form Kroger's with grocery bags spiraling in every direction. She put a few bags on the kitchen table before looking over at Sonic and Tails and yelling, "Come on guys! Help me with the groceries."

"Okay, I'll help you in a second. I'll just go get on my shoes," said Sonic evasively.

"I know very well that you don't ever take off your shoes, Sonic! Quit being lazy and HELP ME!" Amy screeched, annoyed at the guys' unwillingness to help her.

After a few minutes of hauling grocery bags from Amy's car through the cluttered garage, across the dusty patio, into the house and onto the kitchen table by the door, they put every box of Cheez-its and every tub of Blue Bell's ice cream into their place and continued with their lounging around. Except no they didn't, because

"Hey Sonic! They want us up in U of H for biological testing!" Amy said, interrupting Sonic's absorption in a commercial for the generic action show of the month.

Sonic groaned. "Biological testing? That sounds like loads of fun," he said, his voice dull and unexcited.

"Well, it's not like they have that many other mutant hedgehogs to perform tests on," countered Amy.

So they sent Tails home and then drove off. Sonic tried to concentrate on the road rather than dreading the upcoming biological testing as they drove through the Houston suburbs, until suddenly a large, shaggy black dog shot in front of them. Sonic barely avoided them by swerving out the way at the last second.

"Aw, the poor doggy, he doesn't have a collar or anything," Amy cooed. "He must be a stray. What do you say we adopt him, Sonikku? You know I've always wanted a dog."

"We already have a dog," Sonic retorted. "Tails." Proud of himself for his silly little joke, he sniggered heartily, but Amy frowned at him.

"Come on Sonic, where does a stray dog get food? Don't you want to do some good in the world?"

"Well of course I do," he started, agitated. "But it's kind of hard to when you constantly have to show up for your next photo shoot, or when you're being dogged by paparazzi. I mean yeah, yeah, we donate to charity and all of that, but it's just not as satisfying as blowing up Space Colony Ark, or defeating Eggman's mecha and releasing all of the happy little furry animals from their enslavement. I just wish I could do something big! Something heroic! Go on some wild adventure, just like good old times!"

"Well sonic, sometimes I miss the old days too," Amy said soothingly. "But those days are over. Robotnik is dead. We need to adjust to our new life."

"I know, I know." Sonic said, sighing.

The biological testing turned out to be simple DNA test while the Biology professors stood around and babbled about genealogy and ancestors and classes and orders and other things Sonic didn't know or care about. After a few hours, they were turned loose.

As they were pulling out of the university's parking lot, Sonic suddenly had an idea.

"Hey Amy," he said, "why don't we pay old Knuckles a visit?"

"What, you mean we should go to Angel Island?" Amy asked, slightly exasperated.

"No, haven't you heard? He works at the Houston Museum of Natural Science now. The Master Emerald's on display there and he felt the need to join up so he could keep up his guard duties," Sonic explained.

"Oh. Well in that case, let's go!" agreed Amy, as Sonic steered them down Bay Area Blvd.

When they got to the museum, they headed to the _Gem Vault_ at once and found the Master Emerald exhibit. Predictably, Knuckles was standing nearby in his new spiffy security guard outfit.

"Hey Knuckles!" Sonic called, a shadow of his old care-free confidence in his voice. "What's up with you? Still guarding that Master Emerald?"

"Hey Sonic. Hey Amy." Knuckles said, somewhat stiffly. "Long time no see."

"And to you too!" Sonic said. "Why don't we go out to Olive Garden and catch up on the old times?'

"I can't, Sonic," Knuckles explained. "I've got to guard the Master Emerald. What if a thief broke in while I was away?"

"So, haven't changed much, have you?" Sonic said coldly.

"Of course not," replied Knuckles, indifferent. "It's my sworn duty to protect the Master Emerald. You know that."

"Well, it's nice to see you anyway, Knuckles," Amy intervened. "We'll be sure to stop by again later, okay?"

They said their goodbyes and then Sonic and Amy got back in the car and began to drive home.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised," Sonic remarked as they sped down highway 45. "He never was one for recreation. Does he sleep there at the museum or something? Wouldn't surprise me."

"I guess he doesn't really have any other options," Amy replied. The rest of the trip home passed in silence.

**You might be thinking, "why is this under the Adventure genre if there's no adventure?" Well, there will be adventure; this chapter is just an introduction of sorts. Things will pick up soon, I promise.**


	2. Boring Celebrity Life Zone, Act 2

**Note from the author: In Act 1, there was one instance where I forgot to capitalize Sonic. Unfortunately, MS Word didn't correct this because Sonic isn't usually used as a name, so I will keep a closer look out for this sort of thing in the future. Minor issues aside, here's Act 2.**

**Boring Celebrity Life Zone, Act 2**

When Sonic woke up in his king-sized bed the following morning, he noticed that Amy had already gotten up, which was strange, seeing as she usually slept in until at least 10. The curtains were open as well, so as Sonic got out of bed he walked around slightly dazed and accidentally bumped into the old television that they never used, as they preferred the larger one in the living room which was a 2 second's walk away. As he exited his bedroom, he found something else strange: Tails was sitting on the couch. Tails lived down the block and usually didn't come over until after lunch time. Starting to suspect that something was up, Sonic asked, "Is there something wrong? What are you doing over here so early?"

Tails, who was admiring Sonic's collection of cassette tapes on top of the TV, looked at Sonic and said, "I don't know. Amy called me up here a few minutes ago. Where did you get the Selling England by the Pound tape?" he asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"I think one of my friends gave it to me a long time ago," Sonic replied vaguely as he walked back the unused fireplace.

"Well, I think it's Genesis' most overrated album ever," Tails began. "Sure, Dancing with the Moonlit Knight and Firth of Fifth are pretty good, but I always thought that the Cinema Show was somewhat boring, and Battle of the Epping Forest is absolutely…"

"Tails, please," said an aggravated Sonic, "at least let me eat breakfast for launching on one of your art rock rants."

As Sonic was eating his Cocoa Pebbles, Amy walked in through the back door carrying a sun hat.

"Sonic, you're up!" she said, and quickly launched into explanation. "Listen, I thought that you seemed down recently, so I thought it would be fun to go on a camping trip, just the three of us! What do you say?"

Sonic thought for a moment. A camping trip wasn't exactly the excitement he had been waiting for, but it was much better than sitting around the house all day. "Sure, sounds great," he replied. Who knows, maybe a bear would attack them in the night and he, Sonic, would have to save their food supply.

"Great!" Amy exclaimed, as she put the sun hat on Sonic's head. "I already have our stuff packed. Let's head out!"

The camp site was a good two hours from Sonic's home in Enchantment City, so they had plenty of time to argue over which radio station to play.

"Change the station!" cried Tails as Like a Rainbow by the Rolling Stones came on.

"Why?" asked Amy, who had been happily listening to the opening piano melody. "I love this song!"

"Well I don't," replied Tails critically. "It's just a simple love song! How boring. Music is art, and art needs to be creative and inventive!"

"You know what I think, Tails?" asked Amy, who was severely annoyed. "I think you pay too much attention to the technical aspects of music. Why can't you just listen and enjoy?"

After listening to this for the entire trip, Sonic was relieved to finally see the _Camp Waiko- 5 miles_ on a battered wooden sign as they passed by a densely forested area.

"Camp Waiko?" asked Amy, who was giggling. "What a funny name for a campsite!"

"It was actually named after the Waiko Native American tribe," began Tails, with the air of a science professor explaining Newton's law of gravity. "They settled around here approximately…"

"I just said it was a funny name!" spat Amy, who was now livid. "I didn't ask you give me a history les-…"

"Will you guys please shut up!" yelled Sonic, who was fed up with their bickering. "I need to concentrate on finding the camp site!"

That evening, after setting up the tent and lighting a fire, Sonic joking voiced his suspicion that a bear might attack, which led Amy and Tails into a conversation about the best way to deal with a bear.

"If I saw a bear out here, I'd just run for it," said Amy, who seemed to shiver at the thought.

"That's a terrible idea, the bear could easily outrun you," Tails replied, shaking his head. "You need to watch it for signs of aggression. If it starts…"

"Excuse me!" interrupted Amy, who looked affronted. "Are you calling me slow? Because even if I haven't been…"

But what Amy hadn't been doing, they never found out, for at that moment, a loud _BOOM _shook the forest.

"What in the name of Dark Gaia was that?" asked Amy, who looked bewilderedly in the general direction of the noise.

Sonic however, was smiling wider than he had in weeks. "Sounds like this trip is about to get really interesting," he remarked, as he got up out of his foldable chair.

"You're not actually going to go run off and investigate it, are you?" asked Tails, who sounds worried. "It could be something really dangerous, you really shouldn't…"

"Relax, mom," said Sonic jokingly, more excited than he had been for a long while. "What's life without a little risk?" He began to walk out into the forest.

"You know, I'm pretty curious as to what that was as well," said Amy, as she too got up from her chair.

"Okay, fine! We can go!" yelled Tails, who was thoroughly annoyed.

The trio walked along through the dark, woody forest for a good ten minutes with without finding of hearing anything except the chirping of crickets and the hooting of owls. That's when all of a sudden, a figure ran out from the trees and ran smack into Sonic, sending him flying into a particularly large oak tree.

"Ouch! Watch where you're going, you…" but Sonic stopped and his jaw dropped open in shock when he saw who it was. "_Mighty_? Is that you?"

"Sonic! It has been too long!" said Mighty the Armadillo, reaching out a hand to help Sonic up. "So sorry about running into you. Ah, who are your charming friends over there?" he asked, beckoning towards Amy and Tails.

"Mighty, this is Miles Prower; just call him Tails," Sonic explained, slightly amused at the bewilderment of his friends' faces. "And this is Amy Rose."

"Ah, very nice to meet you!" Mighty said, bowing formally and walking over to shake their hands. "Ah, I see you've found yourself a girlfriend, Sonic!" he remarked as he shook Amy's hand, smirking slightly.

Before any of them could confirm or deny this statement, another loud crash reminded them why they were wandering through the woods in the first place. This time, they saw over the treetops something very large falling over.

"Come on guys, let's go check it out!" said Sonic, and the trio, now accompanied by Mighty, quickly made their way over to the site.


	3. Boring Celebrity Life Zone, Act 3

**Boring Celebrity Life Zone, Act 3**

As Sonic, Amy, Tails and Mighty approached nearer and nearer to the site of which they had heard the colossal boom, they saw it: a robot of monstrous size, with glowing red eyes and long, sharp fingers.

"Great Mobius!" exclaimed Mighty. "What is _that_?"

Sonic, however, thought that the robot looked vaguely familiar. He pushed the feeling aside and said, "Well, guess we'll have to save the day, just like old times."

"But what did the robot knock over?" asked Tails.

Mighty pointed to short distance away, where they saw the wreckage of a large tower. "Once again, it looks like humans couldn't resist disrupting nature's beauty with their large metal constructions," he said distastefully.

"How can we stop something that huge!" exclaimed Amy, seeming terrified by the mere size of it.

"I've beaten down countless robots in the past already," replied Sonic, whose old cockiness seemed to be coming back to him. "Just one should be a cinch!" And without further ado, Sonic raced off towards the robot.

"The time for sitting on the sidelines and cheering Sonic on is over!" Tails cried, and as his two tails began to twirl faster and faster he took off into the air after Sonic.

As the dynamic duo approached the robot, they noticed several men in green uniforms marching alongside it.

"What do you think, Tails?" asked Sonic. "Should we try talking to them and figuring out what they're up to, or should we just take 'em out?"

"Well, I suppose we should talk to them first," Tails replied. "For all we know, they're here on the government's orders."

"Since when did G.U.N. make robots _that_ big?" Sonic asked, but agreed with Tails nonetheless.

However, when they tried to approach the men, the men, recognizing Sonic and Tails, seemed to think that they were under attack, and began pulling out their pistols.

"Wow, they're not even trying to give out warnings, huh?" Sonic observed as the men began to open fire. Luckily, the men's aim was poor, and Sonic and Tails easily dodged them and made their way on top of the robot, which seemed oblivious to its new company. The men seemed reluctant to continue fire in fear of hurting the robot, and now stood around, looking confused. One man, who led the small militia, began the talk frantically on his walkie-talkie.

"We'd better take out this thing before this guy's reinforcements show up," said Tails grimly. "If there's one thing experience has taught me, it's that these robots always have a weak point. I'll fly around it and look for one."

Sonic, however, had lost all patience and walked around to the front of the robot's head. There, he stuck his head right in front of the robot's red eyes, where he smiled and waved mockingly.

"Jump for it, Tails!" Sonic shouted, for the robot had raised its fist. Sonic and Tails jumped to the ground as the robot's hand made its head fly clean off, making the robot shut off and begin to fall over. The green-uniformed men quickly jumped and got out of the way, as the robot spectacularly hit the ground and sparks flew in all directions.

Sonic whooped and yelled, "Ha! Just like they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall!" he turned to Tails, the adrenaline of their victory shining through his face. "What a piece of scrap metal, eh?"

"It definitely wasn't designed for combat," replied Tails, who despite himself, was barely suppressing his own laughter.

They turned to see Amy and Mighty running towards them. "Wow, that didn't take nearly as long as I thought!" said Amy.

"The simplest solutions are often the most effective," agreed Mighty, who was smirking. Unfortunately, the men had begun to surround the quartet. The one who Sonic and Tails had previously seen talking on the walkie-talkie now approached them, clearly someone of authority.

"What is the meaning of this?" he questioned in a clear and demanding tone. "What could've possibly warranted this destruction? We were doing no harm to you!"

"Well, you can't blame me, you guys were the ones who shot first!" said Sonic rebelliously. "After all, what are you out here destroying stuff for in the first place? I hardly believe you guys have innocent intentions."

"That," the commander spat, poking Sonic squarely in the chest, "is not any of your business! You are blatantly interfering in on something that has nothing to do with you! Men, seize these pests!"

"I'd like to see you try!" yelled Sonic. Indeed, in no time they had escaped using a combination of speed and Amy's hammer. They ran for a while before Amy had to stop, for she had been out of exercise and was completely winded. Satisfied that they had outrun the men, Tails turned to Sonic. "We need to report this to the authorities! There's no way that the government would use such means if they wanted to demolish a communications tower."

"How do you know that it was a communications tower?" asked Sonic, but before Tails could explain, they saw something in the sky that struck terror into them; several large, airborne robots that, judging by their many missiles and cannons, were definitely designed for combat.

"The fun just doesn't end, doesn't it?" said Sonic wearily. And he was right, for one of the robots had detected them and was now flying towards them. It had a design that reminded Sonic simultaneously of a large cockroach and a Bakugan. Sonic jumped straight towards its head and curled up into a small mid-flight, but when they collided it hardly seemed to dent the robot's thick armor, and the robot promptly grabbed Sonic and threw him with great strength, sending him flying far, far away from the forest.

**Sorry if this was a bit shorter than the first two acts, but I suppose in the classic Sonic games, the third acts were usually shorter anyway. So there's my lame justification.**


	4. Wild Goose Chase Zone, Act 1

**Wild Goose Chase Zone, Act 1**

Sonic woke up to aching pain. Fortunately for him, he had survived much worse falls, but since his hiatus from adventures he was not so used to being thrown 50 miles by a giant robot. Trying to ignore his bruises, he got up.

His surroundings looked as though a very large meteorite had recently stuck the earth. Jumping out of his hole, he looked around at the charred trees and tried to decide where he was.

That's when he suddenly remembered what had happened; He and his friends had been attacked by a giant army of robots! He worried for the safety of his friends, but had no idea how he was supposed to locate their camp site. He looked around a bit to see if any trees were missing their tops, but it looked like he had landed going straight down. So he decided to set off towards the nearest city; maybe the robot attack was reported on the news!

So he ran. It wasn't long before he escaped the forest and found a highway. The large green road signs told him he was near Houston, so he set off, ignoring the shocked and surprised glances of the people in the cars. Soon he was nearing the city limits, and soon found a technology store with several television sets on display, but the newscasters weren't saying anything about robots or his friends or anything. Sonic swore angrily and began pacing in aggravation, but when he noticed what they _were _talking about, he stopped dead in his tracks.

"…is unknown. Guards on duty did not see any sign of an intruder, which makes authorities wonder how he escaped with such a large gem without being seen. The Houston Museum of Natural Sciences reports that it was the only thing stolen from them, which makes the whole situation even more mysterious."

Sonic's brain slowly processed the information. _Large gem. Museum of Natural Sciences. Knuckles! _He raced off once again, accidently knocking over a trash can on his way.

Within minutes, he arrived outside the museum, where several police cars were parked. Sure enough, he found Knuckles, who had abandoned his spiffy blue uniform, yelling at several police officers.

"Hey Knuckles!" he shouted, running towards the group. "What's going on?"

The police officers looked shocked by Sonic's presence and were momentarily dumbstruck, but Knuckles immediately yelled, "Someone stole the master emerald!"

"I knew that already!" yelled Sonic back, "I mean the robots!"

"The robots?" Knuckles asked, looking frightened for the first time. "What robots?"

"Amy, Tails and I were camping when we ran into Mighty and found a bunch of robots destroying things!" Sonic explained frantically.

"Wait, what… how… _Mighty? _But what were… robots…"

At that moment, Knuckles' stammering was interrupted by the arrival of Amy's green Honda pulling up near the museum.

"Sonic!" Amy yelled as she rushed towards him, with Tails and Mighty following.

"Mighty!" Knuckles exclaimed. "Where on Earth have you been!"

"There'll be time for catching up later!" Tails said imperiously, seemingly returning to his old down-to-earth self. He pulled a Chaos Emerald out of his pocket and, ignoring the others' looks of surprise, began to spout explanation. "The government let me keep this one chaos emerald in case something like this happened. I invented a device that allows us to use the attraction the chaos emerald have for the master emerald to locate the latter. This way, we'll be able to track the culprit and bring the emerald back."

"But Tails!" Amy said, somewhat dumbfounded by this sudden news, "what about that army of robots! We don't know why they were knocking over towers, what if it was all part of a sinister plot?"

"Don't you think that whoever took this master emerald is behind the robot attacks too?" Tails ranted, a fierce determination etched into his features. "We need to find out who's behind this as soon as possible."

"You know," began Mighty, speaking for the first time, "it is possible that the villain in this scenario stole the master emerald merely as a diversion? To get us out of the way so that he could have free reign?"

"You know what?" Sonic said, excitement coursing through him as well, "Mighty may be right! That sounds like something Eggman would do!"

"But Sonic, Eggman's dead!" Amy cried, exasperated. "He was sentenced on live TV! There's no way he could still be alive!"

"I'm not so sure," Sonic ranted, "I think that those robots we saw looked an awful like Eggman's old E-100 series! And whose side are you on anyway?" he pressed, glaring at Amy with unwarranted annoyance. "Do you want to stay here or go after the emerald?"

"I don't know!" Amy cried, looking close to tears. "I don't know! There's just so much happening at once! I don't know what to do!"

"Sonic, I don't think we have a choice," explained Tails. "Whether it's a trap or not, we can hardly just let the villain run of with the emerald!"

"Fine then!" Sonic yelled, frustrated beyond all reason. "But I think we should at least leave someone behind here in case Eg- this mysterious new villain decides to attack. How about this; Tails and I go to track this guy down, while Knuckles and Amy…

"No way." Knuckles said bluntly. "Sonic, you know it's my duty to protect the Master Emerald! I can't just stay behind!"

"And there's no way I'm staying here while all of you boys run off and have an adventure!" Amy exclaimed hotly.

"Fine then! Then we can go and Tails can…"

"But Sonic, I don't think anyone else here can operate such a complex device!" protested Tails.

"Fine then! We'll all go, then!" He turned to the police, who seemed startled at being addressed after standing around watching the argument for so long. "You guys keep the city safe, all right?"

The officer was saluting Sonic when suddenly Mighty, whom Sonic had forgotten was even there, spoke up.

"I shall come with." He explained in a slow, dramatic voice. "I would be delighted to assist you after such a long time apart."

Sonic simply stared. He almost considered making Mighty stay behind, but told himself that everything was already in the kitchen sink already and that he might as well come with. Finally, Sonic agreed.

"I've been working on a new model of the Tornado that can seat six of us," Said Tails. "There's still a couple of bugs, but I think we'll be able to use it as long as we don't have to participate in aerial combat."

"Fine then, let's go!" yelled Sonic impatiently, and without further ado, the old gang headed out on yet another adventure.

**Author's note: Sorry for the delay. I realize that this vague, agitated style of writing must be getting old, but I feel that's it's necessary to cover my bases, even if this chapter still leaves much to be explained. Nevertheless, things should be slowing down for a bit soon. By the way, I want to thank my good friend theSteveEngine for drawing the awesome Eggman logo for this picture! (For the record, he also had the idea of Knuckles guarding the Emerald at a museum and it currently working on artwork of that as well.)**


	5. Wild Goose Chase Zone, Act 2

**Wild Goose Chase Zone, Act 2**

The flat Texas countryside passed underneath them as Sonic sat in his seat and wondered how the heck his life so suddenly turned from boring and repetitive to crazy and unpredictable. _What _on earth happened? How come they just happened to find an old friend who had been missing for 15 years wandering around in the middle of nowhere? Where are all of these stupid robots coming from? Who stole the Master Emerald? These were the questions he pondered as he sat there, coming to no other conclusion than that the world had suddenly gone mad.

At least one of these questions he had an answer to, though; when questioned, Mighty told them that he had heard of disturbances in the ecosystem and had gone to investigate. While that did at least answer that question, Sonic still thought it was a fantastic coincidence that he and his friends had decided to go camping there at the same time. He also wondered how on earth the Camp Waiko staff hadn't noticed humungous robots trampling the campsites, but he supposed that where they found the robots was outside of the grounds.

Tails' plane was larger than any previous model of the Tornado, with two pairs of wings and an engine that dwarfed even that of the Tornado X. The inside capsule was organized in three rows: The front had the pilot seat and the passenger seat, where Tails piloted the plane and allowed Mighty, who was surprisingly competent in technology, to operate the Emerald Radar. When asked how Mighty learned how to operate such devices if he spent the majority of his time amongst nature, the armadillo simply said, "It helps to learn other skills other than those that you are most proficient in."

Sonic had wanted the back-seat of the plane so that he could lift his feet onto the adjacent seat and lean his head comfortably against the arm beside him, but Amy insisted that he sit by her, leaving the back seat for their quiet companion Knuckles, who didn't do much besides look out the window, looking as if he was steeling himself for upcoming challenges.

For several hours, they passed over the green landscape with no sign of anything unusual or dangerous. Whoever they were tracking was obviously not human, as they could travel at uncommon speed through terrain far too difficult to navigate by vehicle. It wasn't until they were passing over the sprawling Dallas that their prey seemed to come to halt, because Tails' emerald radar began to accelerate its readings like never before.

Tails landed near the city limits so that they could make a game plan.

"Okay guys," Tails begun, standing up and hitting his head on the ceiling before deciding to just put his knees on his chair and speak to everyone like that. "I think that the most effective way to find this is if we split up."

"I saw that one coming." Sonic muttered under his breath.

"Mighty and I will search from above in our plane. Amy, Sonic and Knuckles will search the city. Any questions?"

"Yeah, I have a question," Piped up Sonic immediately. "How on earth are we supposed to find one thing in the 9th largest city in the US while traveling on foot without a radar or map of any kind?"

"Sonic, don't complain about going on foot, you're the fastest thing alive. Even Knuckles and Amy can go about 3 times faster than most human beings." Tails explained, looking extremely annoyed at being asked such a stupid question. "Besides, we're giving you the radar, which you'd know if you gave me a chance to explain."

"Well, you asked us if we had any questions," Sonic retorted, but he was smirking a little now; annoying Tails had always been fun.

Tails was about to begin another lecture about his intentions, when suddenly the fabric of his seat gave way and Tails fell through it, knees first, his face ramming into the back.

"Are you quite alright, comrade?" Mighty asked, concerned, as Sonic bust out laughing.

"I'm fine, I'm okay!" stammered Tails as he tried getting out of the chair, but ended up just bumping his head on the ceiling again and falling over. Sonic laughed harder still, and even Amy couldn't suppress giggling a little bit.

"Alright guys," started Tails, who now looked extremely embarrassed, "why don't you head out? We'll be fine here."

And so Sonic, Amy and Knuckles received the Emerald Radar from a somewhat amused Mighty and left the plane, preparing to explore the vast city of Dallas.

"Actually, Sonic, I want to have a word with you real quick." Amy said as the Tornado once again took off into the air.

"As long as it's quick," replied Sonic, looking somewhat apprehensive.

"I've noticed that you haven't been really nice to Tails recently," Amy began. "Care to explain yourself?"

"We've always been like this, remember?" Sonic challenged. "We always used to exchange sarcastic remarks. The only difference now is that he's too stuck up to say any back."

"Well, did you really expect him to be a cheerful 8-year-old forever?" Amy retorted. "He's growing up, he might not be a pleasant ray of sunshine all the time, but the worst thing you can do is ignore his feelings."

"What feelings?" Sonic asked, looking incredulous. "What on earth could Tails possibly be upset about?"

"I'm sure he has plenty of things to be upset about! Don't you…" but what Tails was upset about, they didn't find out, for Knuckles suddenly interjected.

"Guys, this commentary on Tails' life is fascinating and all, but shouldn't we focus on finding the thief? I don't think we're going to find them in 'Bananas 2 Go.'

Sonic laughed. "Yeah, I guess you're right there, Knuckles."

The rest of the trip passed in relative silence. The radar slowly sped up as they passed various chain restaurants, parking garages, apartment complexes and schools to the north-west area of the city. Finally, the light on the radar (which had previously been yellow) turned to red, right outside a run-down motel. With an air of determination, Sonic, Amy and Knuckles crossed into the parking lot and began their search, closer and closer to the mysterious villain.

**Sorry about the enormous gap in between chapters, I'll try to be better about that. I did make a- well, not really an animation, but a little sprite movie based on the first chapter of this fanfiction. If you're interested, you can find it here: .edu/projects/10994995/**


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